I'm thinking of getting an e reader for reading books mainly in bed. Obviously the first one to check out is the £59 basic Kindle - which on the face of it is a reasonable proposition for me. I'm not sure if I would benefit from a back light - it would be nice to have the option: The first generation Kindle Paperwhite did not impress me and I have no idea whether the newer version is any better. There's also the Kindle Voyage which promises an awful lot but is seriously expensive and I have yet to see one in the metal.

 

The Nook tablets seem really cheap and nasty.

 

I've had a play with a Kobo Aura HD and was very impressed with it -nice, large, high-res 6.8 inch screen and really good light. I assume that it's easy enough to recode books bought from Amazon in to a format to read on the Kobo using Calibre or something similar?

 

The £59 Kindle seems to have been made deliberately big and clunky (presumably in an effort to make the more expensive models more desirable) and The Kobo Aura HD is £130 - for that money you can get a half decent Android tablet - which is infinitely more flexible, but with a a slightly less pleasant reading experience.

 

 

Kindle battery life would be OK for a manned mission to Mars. Big plus.

 

They're robust too - I've just broken my Kindle 3 after 4 years use.

 

And I expect to obtain another knackered one cheap and fix it up again.

Edited 11 November, 201411 yr by camelspyyder

Ive had the basic kindle for about 18 months now and its been great. Battery lasts for ages - even longer if you turn of the wi-fi when not needed. Service from amazon has been great - I sat on my first one and broke the screen and they replaced it no questions asked. I use it in low light/bed and during the day without problems.

 

For big money I would rather use the kindle app on an ipad or ipad mini. Its a great app and works just like an actual kindle. I expect the kinle app is available for android devices too but Ive no experience of those.

 

You can get free converters to change the formats but Ive found sometimes the formatting can go wonky. Some of the larger waterstones sell kindles and you can have a try of them too - worth a look to play about.

I've had a basic Nook for nearly 2 years and at first thought it was great, but the battery life isn't that good, and the choice of UK books isn't brilliant, although now some County Library systems are lending e-books. I've since bought a basic Kindle and am very happy with it. A lot more books are available and the battery life is fantastic.

 

I got a clip-on light free with a leather cover I bought for the Kindle and find it adequate, but if you don't mind looking daft a focusable headtorch is really good.

Do you have  a smart phone or Ipad ???

 

 

The kindle app does the job and it will sync the last page read to each device.

If you want to read mainly in bed I would go for a kindle - from personal experience as others have said battery lasts for ages. I also have the kindle app on my android S5 phone so always keep the library in sync.

 

I use the kindle mainly indoors and the phone when commuting on the train when I don't want to carry anything around.

 

Come home and the kindle is at the same place where i left off on the phone.

 

Also have the kindle app on ipad for the books in colour

Looked at ereaders a year or so ago fro my eldest daughter and my mum - they both wanted a simple book reading device that could be carried around.  Basically for lots of reading you definitley need an e-ink display rather than a tablet style LCD as the e-ink is far easier to read in any light conditions, much easier on the eye for longer reading periods and uses far less battery power.

However, after comparing Kindles against other makes etc. I finished up buying Kobo's - a Mini for my daughter and a Touch for my mum and both have been great. The Mini is smaller and easier to pocket than the larger kindles whilst the Touch is a similar size to a kindle.  More importantly though the Kobo's are not as restricted on file types in the way that a kindle is and can read a wider range of file types without conversion.  When you do need to convert the free Calibre software is great although it does take a bit of getting used to.

I still have my Kindle 3. I have the 3G version. The internet on it is a bit medieval but can be quite handy for checking weather and flight times when abroad since it's all free.

 

If you're happy to be locked into the Amazon ecosystem then Kindle is a good bet. Amazon are very generous with repairs on them since fundamentally they're a shop front.

Remember you don't really own teh books though and I'm not sure you can take them with you if you choose to go to another platform (other than the tablets which will have an app).

 

They Kindles are well made and as said the battery life is pretty epic.

 

If you get a Kindle it's worth forking out for the genuine cases. They're extortionate but very well made and fit directly to the device.

Edited 13 November, 201411 yr by Aspman

I have a basic Kindle with a paperwhite display, an Ipad and Nexus 7,  The Kindle is the best to read in daylight, the other two and more suited to the the dark.  The eINk of the book reader is much better than the LCD screens on the tablets (for reading that is)

Kindle app for android is excellent.  And currently the "free" kindle download library is over 8000 top books

Thanks for all the responses chaps, I'm still undecided. I have some specific text books in mind that have tables and things in and don't work terribly well on my phone (Android). 

Sony touch screen by far are the best plus download calibre to manage your books and you can populate thru a USB .... Shared books:) battery life on them is great and I rarely charge mied from one two months to the next

Kindle all the way. Faultless after 3 years, fantastic battery life and can read in sunlight, which you cant do on a smartphone or tablet.

having broken the screen of my kindle last week I found that the USB functionality was still there so I copied the book I was reading to my tablet Kindle App - With this direct comparison tablets are not as good to read as a Kindle.

Thanks for all your input folks.

 

I've taken the plunge and bought myself a Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 from John Lewis for £199 - only got it a couple of days ago so haven't had the chance to have a real play with it. I decided that a tablet would be more versatile as I'd like to be able to read text books on it as well which are sometimes accompanied by training videos, which rules out an e-reader. I chose that tablet because it has a very sharp 360ppi LCD screen without going in to silly money

hope you enjoy the tablet - but dont expect to be able to read books while lying on the beach!

hope you enjoy the tablet - but dont expect to be able to read books while lying on the beach!

 

In bright sunshine yes - if you have a parasol it's not a problem - when my Kindle broke last month in Mexico, I copied the books onto my tablet and kept on reading whilst enjoying the all inclusive booze

I'm very sensitive to light, so beach holidays are really not my thing lol.

KINDLE without doubt. In terms of book choice, battery life, readability in all light conditions there are no other competitors (IMO). My only gripe is Digital Rights Management. If I buy a book (or a CD or DVD for that matter), I can lend it, sell it or do whatever I want with it. Digital downloads are a different matter. You never "own" the goods outright! You only have permission to view it on whatever platform you downloaded it on. Kindle have very recently gone part way to rectify that problem, as now you can share your downloads with up to 4 nominated family members.

DRM still sticks in my craw though. Once you've bought it, you should have the right to do whatever you want with it.

I'm very sensitive to light

 

Any excuse to repost this pic to confirm what he says! :sun:

 

KINDLE without doubt. In terms of book choice, battery life, readability in all light conditions there are no other competitors (IMO). My only gripe is Digital Rights Management. If I buy a book (or a CD or DVD for that matter), I can lend it, sell it or do whatever I want with it. Digital downloads are a different matter. You never "own" the goods outright! You only have permission to view it on whatever platform you downloaded it on. Kindle have very recently gone part way to rectify that problem, as now you can share your downloads with up to 4 nominated family members.

DRM still sticks in my craw though. Once you've bought it, you should have the right to do whatever you want with it.

Sounds like kindle are catching up with kobo then... :-)